Climate Change: Why We Are F*cked
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According to the IPCC — and one would say that the IPCC is quite conservative to its estimation — we should decrease greenhouse gas emissions almost by half by 2030 if we want to keep warming below 1.5C. Last year, greenhouse gas emissions kept increasing, albeit in lower rates.
Of course, the suggested reduction refers to global emissions. Granted that many poor countries already emit very little, we should not expect them to emit even less. That means that countries which emit a lot should decrease their emissions even more than just by half. How likely is that to happen, particularly in the next six years?
Could we expect, for example, that in the next six years we will manage to replace half, if not more, of our fossil fuels-based energy production with more environmentally friendly sources of energy?
Could we expect that people in the countries that emit the most will do what is needed to decrease the consumption in their countries by significant amounts?
Anyone believing so, I think is utterly naive. This is not doomerism. This is merely being realistic.
Of course, I might have got it all wrong. If anyone thinks so, write in the comments.
But it seems quite obvious to me. The verdict is: we are fucked.
Indeed. One quick hack to see just how fucked we are is to use the bottom-up approach: look at what we've been doing, f.ex. by how we are squandering our remaining carbon budget. The graphs say it all.
You can ditch the entire discussion about politics, capitalism, ecology, psychology and what-have-you. It's impossible to fully understand anyway, and our narratives depend on our outlooks, which are determined by all sorts of things outside our control, including how are very brains are wired.
But there's no arguing with reality. The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is fucking gone.
yes indeed, we are fucked, but not only because of the climate change. We have created a sick society, and we don't seem to be able to get out of it.